Chief Minister MK Stalin led a rally in Chennai on May 10, 2025 to express solidarity with the Indian Armed Forces. , Photo Credit: M. Vedan
lAST Week, when India’s defense forces launched Operation Sindoor, targeting terrorist networks in Pakistan, MK Stalin was one of the first chief ministers to appreciate military action. He made it clear that Tamil Nadu was firm with the Indian Army in his fight against terrorism.
Two days later, Mr. Stalin announced a plan to lead a solidarity rally in Chennai. He said, “This is the time for the Indian Army to unite and show our support, which is courageously facing Pakistan’s repeated violations and acts of terrorism,” he announced.
Even the Chief Ministers belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) did not wear their patriotism on their sleeves, as Mr. Stalin did, with such public performance of support for the armed forces, especially when it was too early to judge whether the military operations would move forward in the war. However, by the time Mr. Stalin completed a 3.8-kilometer march in Chennai on Saturday evening, the paintings of the fallen soldiers paid floral tributes to the victims of the Pahgam attack on 22 April, a struggle was declared.
The Act of Mr. Stalin, including the beginning and end of the rally, included the Indian flag, possibly fulfilled a deep, underlying intentions – being a “separatist” party to the label of Dravidian Munnetra Kajgam (DMK). Despite its history of abandoning the demand for a ‘Dravidian Nadu’ (a separate Dravidian state) during the 1962 Chinese invasion, and the Center for the Center for Important period (1989–90, 1999–2003 and 2004-2004-2013) had shared power in the center, DMK has long tolerated this label. Critics armed for this tag to attack the party regularly whenever this state advocates autonomy, strong federalism, or strong symbolic gestures. For example, two months ago, when the Stalin government replaced the Indian currency symbol ‘₹’ with the Tamil alphabet Ruo in its budget document, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitarman rapidly condemned it, seen it as “more than symbolism”. He argued that it indicates a dangerous mentality that “weakens Indian unity and promotes separatist feelings under the guise of regional pride.” In his view, it was a “perfectly avoidable” example of “language and regional chaos”.
Mr. Stalin, who approved the Tamil logo in the promotional material of the budget, defended the move as a statement of his government’s vigor about the state’s language policy. While the promotion of Hindi is often implicated by its supporters as an act of national integration, Tamil Nadu’s opposition to Hindi is dismissed as Tamil Chuvism.
DMK has faced similar allegations in the past. When former Chief Minister M. When Karunanidhi established the PV Rajmannar Committee to study the center-state relations in 1969, he had to clarify that there was no call for separation separation for more state powers. Even after the committee’s report was released in 1971, he reiterated that the objective was not to face the center. Similarly, when Mr. Stalin recently announced the formation of Justice Kurian Joseph Committee to strengthen the state autonomy and federalism, the BJP saw it with suspicion.
Stalin government has been seen as more than only claims of autonomy by all ‘nationalists’ for National Education Policy, Conditions of PM Shri Yojana, three language policy and proposed delimitation. In this context, one of his decision to lead a solidarity march on this issue where any dissatisfied visual or logic is rapidly branded ‘anti -nation’, perhaps a careful balance act was considered.
Despite his stressful relations with the Chief Minister, Governor RN Ravi supported Mr. Stalin’s rally. He thanked the Chief Minister for organizing the rally, calling it an expression of “uneven solidarity of our 8 crores of Tamil Nadu” along with the Indian Armed Forces. It was Shri Ravi, who had previously criticized “too much stress on federalism” and claimed, “Unfortunately, in Tamil Nadu, ‘WeR Dravidian’ has had a regressive politics … To strengthen this story, a complete attempt has been made in the last half century that ‘we are not part of the nation’ …
Mr. Stalin’s rally now serves as a strategic counterpost for DMK, which is to challenge critics who question their commitment to nationalist cause.
Published – May 13, 2025 01:42 am IST